by Jack Vance
[***] Dadu: a language of finger signs and the syllables da, de, di, do, du.
[†††] Eathre alluded to the Zoriani nac Thair nac Thairi, which derived power from its ability to defile the temple or any particular Chilite. There were six degrees of defilement, the first being a touch of a female finger, the sixth a drenching with a bucketful of unmentionable substances. The Sister, or Sisters, who executed the defilements were volunteers, usually old, sick, and quite willing to end their lives dramatically by poison wads ingested immediately after achieving their goals. Defilement impelled the Chilites to a month-long ritual of the most onerous Purification during which no galga was burnt; if the ecstatic trance were attempted previous to complete Purification, Galexis Achiliadnid appeared in horrid guise. During the period of Purification the Chilites became surly and restless. The Pure Boys were often victimized in one fashion or another.
[‡‡‡] By the usual Shant symbology blue, green, purple, and gray carried optimistic attributes. Browns were unfavorable, tragic, elegant, authoritative, according to context. Yellow was the hue of death. Red, signifying invisibility, was used to paint objects meant to be ignored. Thieves wore red caps. White indicated mystery, chastity, poverty, anger, dependent on circumstances. Colors in combination changed significance. In connection with color symbolism, the ideograms of Canton Surname might be mentioned. Originally each word was represented by color strokes in correct symbolic combination; the scribe wrote with as many as seven brushes in his fist. In due course a secondary system came into effect, employing monochromatic dots at various heights, indicative of color, that in turn evolved into a jointed line tracing the position of the color indicators, and at last the sign for each word became a cursive ideogram from which all reference to color had been lost.
[§§§] A notable exception: the Chilites of Canton Bastern.
[****] The fragmentation of Shant into cantons can be attributed both to the quality of the original settlers and the lack of metal for efficient engines.
[††††] The typical balloon, carrying four to eight passengers and a wind-tender, was a semi-flexible slab one unit of dimension wide, eight units long, four units high. The skeleton might be bamboo, tempered glass tubing, or rods of cemented glass fiber. The membrane was the dorsal skin of a gigantic coelenterate, nurtured and forced until it completely filled a large shallow tank, whereupon the skin was lifted and cured. Hydrogen provided buoyancy. The slots in which the dollies ran were precast members of concrete reinforced with glass fiber, attached to foundation-sleepers. The usual dolly consisted of two sets of trucks separated by a truss thirty feet long, at the ends of which the guys were attached. The wind-tender used trimming winches to shorten or lengthen bow and stern lines, thus controlling wind-aspect, and the canting winch, to alter the shape of the bridles at bow and stern and thus control the angle of heel. Under optimum circumstances velocity reached sixty or seventy miles an hour. The routes made purposeful use of prevailing winds; where the route consistently encountered adverse winds or calm, motive power was applied to the dollies at ground level by an endless cable driven by water wheels or a work-gang at a windlass; by a gravity-cart loaded with stone; by teams of pacers. Balloons passed each other at sidings or traded dollies. Where the route crossed gorges, as at Angwin Junction, or met otherwise unfavorable terrain, a cable of iron web strands formed a link in the slot.
[‡‡‡‡] The language of Shant allows exquisite discrimination between colors. Against red, scarlet, carmine, maroon, pink, vermilion, cerise, Shant, could set sixty descriptive degrees, with as many for every other color. In Gray-Blue-Green Interpolators, the qualities of "gray," "blue," and "green" were precisely specified in order to express by symbological means the exact emotional point of view from which Master Oxtot's troupe performed their variations.
[§§§§] Druithines, unlike the troupes, never advertised their comings and goings; after an unheralded, almost furtive arrival at some locality, the druithine would visit one of the taverns and order a repast, sumptuous or frugal, according to his whim or personal flair. Then, he would bring forth his khitan and play but would not eat until someone in the audience had paid for his meal. The "uneaten meal," indeed, was a common jocular reference. Druithines in decline reputedly employed a person to make ostentatious payment for the meal as soon as it was set forth. After the meal the druithine's further income depended on gratuities-, gifts from the tavern-keeper, engagements at private parties or in the manor houses of aristocrats. A druithine of talent might become wealthy, as he had few expenses.
[*****] The twelve avenues radiating from the Aesthetic Corporation Plaza were named for Chama Reya avatars.
[†††††]Avistioi: literally, "nice discriminators": the constabulary of the Aesthetic Corporation.
Etzwane found it difficult to control his nervousness.
